NCPC @ JTH / JU

Nordic Collegiate Programming Contest

2026 Rudy Matela (rudy.matela@ju.se), JTH

What is the NCPC?

Nordic Collegiate Programming Contest

We host it at JU every year.

The NCPC format:

👥 teams of 3 students
⏱️ 5 hours
🚩 ≈ 10 programming problems
⌨️ solutions in: Python, C, Java, C#, C++, Haskell or 40 other languages.
💻 1 computer per team
🎈 the team with most problems solved wins

1 problem solved = 1 balloon!

NCPC 2026

Where? Here at JU / JTH.

When? Saturday 3 October.

How are the problems?

Programming
Algorithms
Data Structures
From easy…
… to hard.

Example:

The “km/h” problem from NCPC 2025

Solutions not only have to produce the correct output ✅,
but also be in the optimal/expected time complexity ✅✅.
It’s often easy to get the correct output through brute-force or simulation (no points ❌),
but not so easy to do it in an optimal time complexity ✅.

NCPC Schedule, Saturday, 3 October 2026

From 10:00 to 16:30

Time	Event	Location
10:00 – 10:15	Recommended arrival	JTH (yellow building)
10:15 – 10:45	Introduction Presentation	Stora Enso E1029
11:00 – 16:00	Main Contest (NCPC 2026)	Husqvarna E1028
Around 12:00	Light lunch is served	Galleriet E1120
16:00 – 16:30	Quick Award Ceremony	Stora Enso E1029

Why participate?

Its fun! You get baloons 🎈🎈🎈!
A great way to practice programming: data structures, algorithms, etc.
Coursework: gets easier.
Teamwork.
Meet people / networking.
Potential travel (if you qualify)
Nice for your CV.
Meet companies (event sponsors).

How to register in the NCPC?

form a team of up to 3 team members
email <rudy.matela@ju.se> info for the (3) team members:
- full name;
- university email address (e.g.: @student.ju.se);
- a team name.
wait for an email with a link to complete registration
complete the registration on the received link

Coming up:

This Friday afternoon 18 September: info & registration session
Next Friday afternoon 25 September: practice contest/workshop
The other Saturday 3 October 10:00: NCPC, the real deal!

These are in your student calendars. Rooms: E1029 (Stora Enso) and E1028 (Husqvarna).

Any questions?

rudy.matela@ju.se

jukod.github.io

jukod.github.io/slides

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Preparing/practicing for the NCPC

The best problems for practicing leading up to the competition are the problems from NCPC 2025, NCPC 2024 and NCPC 2023 (last years). Here are 6 interesting problems in order of difficulty:

They are available for practice at open.kattis.com. You can submit your solutions online there, so you can check if they are really correct.

The competition stages:

NCPC: Nordics
NWERC: NW EU
EUC: Europe
ICPC: World Finals

Qualifying teams move to the next stage.

There’s an intricate web of competitions worldwide…

Start here! ⬆️

JU/JTH @ NCPC: summary

NCPC	#-solved ps.	🇸🇪-rank	🇸🇪%	rank	%
NCPC 2023	5 🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈	24th / 36	top 66%	89th / 160	top 55%
NCPC 2024	4 🎈🎈🎈🎈	9th / 23	top 40%	39th / 139	top 30%
NCPC 2025	5 🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈	13th / 49	top 27%	41th / 173	top 25%

… also: 3 problems solved at NWERC 2024!

JU/JTH @ NCPC: #-teams summary

NCPC	#-teams	#-students
NCPC 2023	👥 (1)	🎓🎓🎓 (3)
NCPC 2024	👥👥👥👥 (4)	🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓 (11)
NCPC 2025	👥👥👥👥👥👥👥👥👥👥 (10)	🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓 (30)

NCPC 2026	👥👥👥👥👥👥👥👥👥👥… (¿≥10?)	🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓🎓… (¿≥30?)

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Gallery

NCPC 2025 @ JTH/JU.

NWERC 2024 @ Delft, Netherlands: time lapse #1.

NWERC 2024 @ Delft, Netherlands: time lapse #2.

ICPC 2009 World Finals @ Stockholm, Sweden

ICPC 2009 World Finals, Stockholm
ICPC 2019 World Finals, Porto
ICPC 20?? World Finals, ????

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To compile this document from source run:

pandoc --title "JU Kod" -tslidy -s slides.md -o slides.html

You need pandoc installed.

This slide set can be found on:

https://jukod.github.io/slides

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